That is less true in the west for now I think; I see enough difference in phones to recognize the different brands from a distance; however in China, it seems that all 'local' brands (most of which you never heard of) are all just making identically looking phones, mostly mirrored after the iPhone 6+/7+. With some interesting exceptions, I cannot really see the difference even from closer up with, outwardly, the same materials, same buttons in the same locations etc. It becomes even harder to see when people have a case around their phone.

Not sure if it is fundamentally a bad thing; it'll push prices down and manufacturers who want to distinguish will try other forms. Like I said before, and some here seem to agree, please experiment with more battery, focusing less on the size or speed. At the electronics fair in Hong Kong last week a friend gave me a tablet which is so cheap that if you drop it you wouldn't even pick it up but just get a new one (his words, not mine) and it is fast enough for me to browse, play some games, chat and have fine battery life. More battery life for this that kind of thing matters to me personally more than screen size/resolution or speed as the latter is more than enough for most people anyway but at the same time people complain mostly about battery life.

"Once we went to slabs with the original LG Prada all our phones have generally looked the same."